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Fossil Fuels in Economic Theory - Back to the 19th century British Debates

Author

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  • Antoine Missemer

    (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIRED - centre international de recherche sur l'environnement et le développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

The interest of economists in fossil fuel exhaustion dates back to the mid-19th century, when, in Great Britain, W. Stanley Jevons published his 1865 essay on coal. In the subsequent decades, fossil fuels were considered with ambivalence: sometimes as a new theoretical and practical priority, sometimes as a secondary issue to be studied in standard frameworks. This paper explores, through the example of the mining rent, how fossil fuels were (partially) incorporated into economic theory at the time. It also explains why the original British view was finally relegated to the background in the early 20th century, when American economists took part in the discussions.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoine Missemer, 2018. "Fossil Fuels in Economic Theory - Back to the 19th century British Debates," Post-Print hal-01793364, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01793364
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01793364
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    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-01793364/document
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Antoine Missemer, 2015. "La peur du déclin économique face à l’épuisement des ressources naturelles, de W. Stanley Jevons à Herbert S. Jevons (1865-1915)," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 66(5), pages 825-842.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Ferreira da Cunha & Antoine Missemer, 2020. "The Hotelling rule in non‐renewable resource economics: A reassessment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 800-820, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    marginalism; Jevons; mining rent; history of economic thought; fossil fuels;
    All these keywords.

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